Into the Darkness
by Lystelle
Summary: An AU fic inspired by the episode "The Wish." A one shot fic about how Xander and Willow became vampires.


"I wish Buffy Summers had never come to Sunnydale!"

Cordelia Chase got her wish.

*****

Willow Rosenberg sat in The Bronze waiting patiently for Xander Harris, her best friend and the prominent object of her affection. She idly toyed with the red plastic cup sitting in front of her. All that remained of her drink was ice and watered down cola.

Life in Sunnydale, California was not exciting. Willow was the top student in her school, aside from some guy, named Daniel Osbourne, who tested extremely well. She had two best friends, and her parents were mostly normal…as normal as parents could get, she supposed. Willow didn't necessarily wish for more a more exciting or more glamorous life. She just wished for something more…just more.

Three months ago, the third member of their small group, Jesse McNally had been killed. The police said words like "foul play" and "homicide" but like many deaths in Sunnydale, his case went unsolved. The death of their friend had definitely hit them both hard. It had also brought some things to light. Willow found that there was a huge mortality rate at Sunnydale High School, that seemed to filter out into the town itself. There were twelve churches within the city limits and even more cemeteries. There was something off about Sunnydale. She had heard about the crime in New York City, but somehow, the death toll in a one Starbucks town like Sunnydale seemed out of place. The more research Willow did the, the stranger the world around her seemed.

Willow spent hours in the library before school, during her lunch hour, and after school. The new librarian, Mr. Giles, was extremely helpful and seemed to like to discuss odd phenomena. He seemed surprised by her dedication but also impressed. He gave her odd, old books to read. Xander teased her about having a crush on the British librarian, but Willow chalked it up to him being jealous that she wasn't spending more time with him. Willow felt guilty, but she was also compelled to discover the mysteries of Sunnydale and of their friend's death.

Xander seemed lost and lonely a lot of the time. Willow didn't know how to help him out of the darkness that he had sank into after Jesse's death. Willow was dealing with her own sorrow; she found that she was scared most of the time and wondered if Xander felt the same way.

Not even Jesse knew the full extent of Xander's home life. His parents were alcoholics and hardly lucid most of the time. They certainly didn't have time to be parents to their seventeen year old son. Willow wondered if Xander turned up dead if they would have the same powerful reaction that Jesse's parents exhibited? They had moved out of Sunnydale only a month after they buried their son. Willow went to the cemetery the day after Jesse's funeral, to say her own good-bye.

Willow had found it disturbing that the soil was turned up, like they hadn't taken the time to cover the dirt with grass. She laid her flowers over his upturned grave and said a few nice words to her friend. She said good-bye and turned and left, never returning to his gravesite. It gave her the wiggins to think about the upturned dirt and the feeling of being watched.

Today had been a particularly horrible day. Cordelia Chase had been in rare form; she was bullying the students around her with more pizzazz than she usually cared to put into her torture techniques. She had embarrassed Willow and Xander in one sweeping slice. Willow was still angry when she thought about it. Sixteen years of torture and bullying, Willow had a tough hide, but there were some days that she just couldn't seem to hack it. After that she disappeared into the library. Mr. Giles was in his office and Willow didn't bother him like she usually did. Instead she sat down and picked up the latest tattered book that Giles had lent her from his private collection. She was reading a particularly weird passage about vampires. While reading what to look for to prove that someone is or is not a vampire, Willow was suddenly overcome with gooseflesh crawling across her skin, her body shivering violently for a moment. The strange and weird occurrences that had been happening all over Sunnydale: the disappearances, the mysterious deaths, and the claim of seeing dead fellow students in odd places.

Vampires.

Willow glanced at her clock. It was nearly ten, clearly Xander had decided to not show up at The Bronze. It was hard for Willow not to take it personally some times. But she knew he was going through a difficult time, he didn't mean to be insensitive. Willow was hoping to share her new theory with him, though she knew that he would only mock her. She hoped that he would. She wanted someone to tell her she was ridiculous.

_Talk to Mr. Giles_, she had told herself several times. What she feared most from that action was that Mr. Giles would tell her that she was right. Willow didn't want to live in a world where vampires were real. She liked her cozy world with no vampires and only crazy humans walking about killing people in the darkness of night.

Shivers ran down her spine again. Willow slid off her stool wanting to get home as soon as she could. If there were vampires in Sunnydale, surely the safest place she would be at home tucked safely in her room with her fish.

The walk home was incredibly scary. Every sound seemed foreign and malicious. She was scared to go around every corner, especially when she walked by the cemetery. The neighborhoods that were familiar seemed cold and unwelcoming. Willow chuckled to herself, _Ah, the irony_. The day she discovered vampires, is when she decided to walk home alone after dark. So much for being the smartest girl in school.

Home was only blocks away, she would round the corner of Holly Street and would be able to see her street corner. She picked up the pace, feeling elated that home was within reach.

What Willow didn't know, is that she was being hunted long before she left The Bronze.

He came out of the darkness like a shadow and stopped before her. "Hello, love," he greeted.

Willow started at the man in front of her. He was definitely taller than her, but had a compact lithe form. He had bleached blonde hair that was slicked back, carved and chiseled features, and a long black leather jacket. He looked like Billy Idol in a way.

"Hi," she said meekly. She tried to keep walking, but the man did not move from her path.

"Where do you think you're going?" He moved closer and Willow stepped back. Her heart was pounding in her throat and her breath was labored. Home was just around the corner.

"Home," she stated matter-of-factly, staring at the sidewalk.

"They say, you can never go back home."

Willow peered up at his face. She couldn't scream or cry at the sight of him. His pale and beautiful face had changed into something hideous that she could only conjure in nightmares. His face was now distorted, he had pointy fangs, and his eyes were yellow.

Willow tried to move away, going backwards, only she bumped into someone behind her. Instinctively, she turned around to see a beautiful young woman towering over her. She had long dark hair that flowed over her shoulders like a waterfall of curls. She was wearing a red and black dress that didn't quite fit anything that you might find on the racks in a mall. It was long, and made for her slight figure. She had long red nails and her face became distorted before Willow's eyes, just like Billy's.

"Will she do, pet?" Billy had a British accent, but it was different from Mr. Giles' prim and proper accent. "You need to eat something soon, Drusilla. We haven't found Angel yet, and until we do, you have to keep up your strength."

"She's lovely, Spike. Full of power and life." Drusilla paused as if she were listening to someone that Willow couldn't see. "Miss Edith thinks that she has more to offer." The woman's accent was thicker than Billy's aka Spike's.

Willow glanced around for an escape path. She could make a run for it, but she wondered if it was a moot effort. She refused to die or get caught without at least trying to getaway.

Spike's hands were on Willow's shoulders before she could try her escape plan. She struggled against his vise grip on her.

"Easy, love," Spike whispered in Willow's ear.

The woman standing before her leaned closer and Spike adjusted Willow's head so that her throat was exposed. The last coherent thought that passed through Willow's mind was that she was right, it was vampires. And now the secret would die with her. She hoped Xander would escape such a fate.

Willow wasn't aware of much, aside from the pain. She heard Spike's silky voice cooing softly to his Drusilla before darkness ravaged her.

*****

Alexander Harris stood at his second funeral in three months. The tears had stopped flowing somewhere in the middle of the night. The warm sun caressed him in his black suit that still smelled cough syrup from the last time he had worn it. His mom and spilled her drink on his jacket at his friend, Jesse's, funeral.

Willow's casket was a dark redwood, that glistened in the sunlight. Everyone around him was sobbing silently, rubbing their eyes and noses with damp tissues. Xander felt numb and cold. His entire life, the reason why he continued to get up in the morning was now dead. Another mysterious murder statistic for the Sunnydale Police Department.

Xander clenched his fists and curl them up under his arms that crossed over his chest. He could barely breathe. His mom and dad were standing near the back hoping no one noticed their flasks as they continued to drink themselves into oblivion. Something Xander had tried once and never wanted to try again. He would give anything in the world to talk to his Willow one more time.

The rabbi finished his sermon and everyone said their good-byes to the casket. Xander waited until everyone was gone. He waited for the men to slowly lower her coffin into the ground. He felt the tears sting his eyes, as he watched her descend into the ground. He could no longer stop the tears, they fell at their own accord. He watched as they put the dirt over her and patted the ground until it was smooth. They gently put the carpet of grass over her filled in grave.

The two men doing their job left him standing there staring at the ground. The tombstone was not grand. It lay on the ground, nicely embedded so it couldn't easily be moved. He stared blankly at the words, not comprehending their meaning.

Xander felt sick again. He stumbled as he started to walk away. The sun had already started going down and soon the darkness would take him whole this time. There was no leading him back to the light. What did he have but his parents who hardly remembered his existence and a school full of people who wanted to torture him and belittle him.

He fell to the ground and started to sob once again.

"You shouldn't stick around here for too much longer," a male voice interrupted his grief.

Xander didn't care if the guy was bigger than any of the football players at school, he was going to kill him. He shot up from his spot and whipped around. There standing in the shadows of a tree was a lanky man with dark spiky hair and an over hanging forehead.

"Drop dead," Xander sniped.

The man's lips twitched. "You don't want to be caught here after dark," the man stated.

"Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Angel."

"Congratulations. Now get lost." Xander wiped his face, the streams of tears had turned cool on his hot cheeks. He felt a stab of pain when he caught a glimpse of Willow's grave once again. It hadn't even been a week and he missed her desperately. Why didn't he go to The Bronze that night? Maybe he could've saved her. Maybe he couldn't died in her place.

When Xander peered over at the tree, the man was gone and Xander was glad. As much as he wanted to kick the guy's ass, he didn't think he was actually in any kind of position to do so.

Not feeling ready to face home yet, he went back up and sat down next to her headstone. He wanted to talk to her. He wanted to hear her laugh or her strained voice when she had coffee. He wanted his Willow back.

Xander didn't register the faint scratching noise at first. Once he finally heard it, he glanced down at the grass that seemed to be pulsing from beneath. He scrambled to his feet and watched in horror as a dainty hand broke through the top soil and newly laid grass. Another hand popped through and clutched at the dirt and grass. A moment later Willow was pulling herself out of the ground. Xander just stared unable to move, paralyzed by fear and the unknown.

She was Willow. She was still wearing the blue dress that her mother had chosen to bury her in. Willow's red hair was down and covered in dirt and pieces of grass. The only difference was her face. She had glowing yellow eyes, and bumpy forehead that changed the whole shape of her face. She had long pointed fangs and she was eyeing him curiously.

"Xander," her voice sounded the same.

He couldn't speak, he opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water.

"I told you to leave." Angel stood behind Willow. He was holding a strange piece of wood in his hand. "You should go now. You're not going to want to see this."

Xander didn't understand. "See what?" he muttered.

"This isn't your friend anymore," Angel replied.

Xander didn't understand what this guy was talking about. Aside from her scary face, it was exactly his Willow. He felt his chest seize when her face changed. And then she was his Willow. Her soft features and doe eyes peered at him. She titled her head.

"Xander," she said again.

The fear drained from his body. "Willow," he breathed.

Angel lunged for Willow. She narrowly escaped his pointed wood…a stake, Xander realized. The crazy freak was attacking his Willow with a wooden stake. Xander grabbed Willow to protect her. He put himself between her and Angel.

"She's not your friend. Don't you see, she's going to kill you. She's a demon now."

Xander didn't move. "She's Willow," he defended.

Angel hesitated. He moved slowly and precisely, Xander followed him, watching him carefully. Angel tried to lunge again. Xander barely had time to push Willow away. Angel had quick reflexes and moved very, very fast.

"Well, well, well, it's a party." A bleach blonde man doing a mighty good Billy Idol impersonation approached with a brunette gothic Barbie hanging on his arm. "Angel, I didn't know you were here."

"What can I say, Spike, I heard you were coming. Didn't want to disappoint." Angel moved around a few headstones making sure he wasn't blocked in anywhere.

"Darla said that you were still soul-boy, is it true?"

Angel didn't answer.

Xander watched the scene unfold in front of him. He kept Willow very close to him.

"The Master wants you alive, though I don't know why. In fact, I don't know why everyone is jumping around just because he said to," Spike sighed. "I'm really not into doing what I'm told, so let's fight it out, nancy-boy."

"She's all done," the woman next to Spike cooed.

Spike's gaze flickered to Xander and Willow.

"Can't we take her home and play with her now?" the woman questioned.

"Drusilla, honey, can't you see I'm in the middle of something?"

She feigned crying and Spike wrapped his arms around her. "Oh, pet, I'm sorry. But Angel really does need to die."

Xander started moving Willow backwards. He wanted to get as big of a head start as he cold manage. Willow followed him without saying a word.

As soon as there was a good distance between them, Xander grabbed her hand and they ran all the way back to his house. They went in through a separate door that led directly into the basement. It was a dank and depressing basement, but it would do for now.

Xander wrapped his arms around his dear friend, Willow.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Hungry," she replied, eyeing him.

Xander glanced toward the stairs. "I'll go get you something to eat, don't move." He was afraid to leave her, afraid that she wouldn't be here when he got back. He wrapped his arms around her again, squeezing her.

He pulled back and looked down at her face. Had she always been so beautiful? Was it because he finally realized what he had? Xander wanted to kiss her, for a fleeting moment. He gently stroked her silky red hair as he tucked it behind her ear. She smiled at him, her black eyes watching him. She was safe in his arms, and Xander felt the tension ease inside him. Willow's funeral and the cemetery scene quickly faded into nothing but a bad dream.

Willow peered up at him and smiled. She caressed his cheek and then she tucked her head into the crook of his neck. He held her there for a few moments, and that's when the blindly pain paralyzed him.

He gripped Willow to stay standing. The memory of her distorted face flashed through his mind. _She's not your friend anymore, _Angel's words ran through Xander's head as he started to feel light headed and dizzy. He cradled her head against him, and felt her arms around him support his weight as he could no longer hold himself up.

Nothing mattered, except his best friend was holding him as he faded into the darkness.

The End. 


End file.
